{"id":92,"date":"1987-05-22T18:07:51","date_gmt":"1987-05-23T01:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=92"},"modified":"2014-06-14T11:29:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-14T18:29:31","slug":"record-u-s-surplus-of-38-7-billion-in-april-helps-cut-f-iscal-year-deficit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=92","title":{"rendered":"Record U.S. Surplus of $38.7 Billion in April Helps Cut Fiscal-Year Deficit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>WASHINGTON (AP)\u00a0– The\u00a0federal government enjoyed\u00a0.1 record $38.7\u00a0billion surplus in April as both individual and corporate tax payments rose\u00a0sharply, the Treasury Department said\u00a0Thursday.<\/p>\n

The huge surplus, representing the difference between what\u00a0the government took in and what it spent last month, helped to reduce the deficit\u00a0for the first seven months of the fiscal year to $83.3 billion.<\/p>\n

That figure\u00a0is 34 percent\u00a0lower than the red ink run up during the first seven\u00a0months of the 1986 budget period, a year in which the federal\u00a0government suffered a record deficit of $220.7 billion.<\/p>\n

The Reagan administration has been forecasting that the deficit this year will shrink to $173.2 billion. Private economists said Thursday that this goal is not as out of reach as they once thought.<\/p>\n

Allen Sinai, chief economist for Shearson Lehman Brothers, said he was now forecasting a deficit of $182 billion for fiscal 1987, down from an earlier projection of a $190 billion shortfall, based on higher tax revenues so far this\u00a0year.<\/p>\n

Sinai said personal income taxes were boosted because many high-income taxpayers decided to sell off assets\u00a0at the end of last year to take advantage of lower tax rates for long-term capital gains. That advantage was eliminated under the new tax law.<\/p>\n

Corporate taxes are up this year, he said, because business profits are up.<\/p>\n

Inflation is higher and the dollar is lower and that helps\u00a0corporate profits,” Sinai said.<\/p>\n

Even with the improvements, the federal deficit\u00a0will still be above the $144 billion target set by\u00a0the Gramm-Rudman balanced budget\u00a0law. The deficit target for the fiscal 1988, which begins Oct. 1, is $108 billion.<\/p>\n

While the government normally posts a surplus in April,\u00a0the deadline month for filing income tax returns,\u00a0the surplus this year of $38.7 billion was almost four times higher than last year’s April surplus of $9.9 billion.<\/p>\n

Government receipts totaled $122.9 billion last month, while spending totaled $84.2 billion.<\/p>\n

Individual income tax payments amounted\u00a0to $71.9 billion of the revenue figure, up 59 percent from a year ago. Corporate tax payments totaled $11.2 billion, up 28 percent from April 1986.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP)\u00a0– The\u00a0federal government enjoyed\u00a0.1 record $38.7\u00a0billion surplus in April as both individual and corporate tax payments rose\u00a0sharply, the Treasury Department said\u00a0Thursday. The huge surplus, representing the difference between what\u00a0the government took in and what it spent last month, helped to reduce the deficit\u00a0for the first seven months of the fiscal year to $83.3 billion.… Continue reading Record U.S. Surplus of $38.7 Billion in April Helps Cut Fiscal-Year Deficit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}